Pleasantly surprised and encouraged

The thought of reaching the "analysis" part of my research is a little daunting, even though it is still in the dim future, and the idea of taking a class dealing with specific technology of conducting this analysis seemed more daunting.
I was therefore pleasantly surprised at the range and quality of tools offered in this class and my level of comfort with them. The manner in which some of the tools were presented made me look at technology I knew existed in a different, more productive way!

Having used Prezi and mindmeister, I knew what possibilities they have especially in collaborative work, but I must say, i LOVE the idea of using Wordle towards self-analysis (of my work that is) rather than just a graphic design tool.

I have used Audacity for editing music (yes, i do make my own ringtones)  but had no idea i could actually "edit" participant interviews, to whittle them down to manageable chunks for transcription. Same for ExpressScribe, which i did not know about at all. So, that was very useful, thank you Lauren!

i liked playing with Transana and WeftQDA but though i don't know what CAQDAS will work best for me, I did find the exercize of coding most useful.

Saving the best for last, I have to say THANK YOU for Zotero. I might succumb and buy Endnote at a lovely $80 but for now, Zotero is my new best friend. Thank God I can ditch RefWorks, which i always found rather clumsy and convoluted.

This has been 5 weeks well spent.  Oh, and I almost forgot. I now know how to record video on skype and a whole new world of possibilities just opened up for me and my research participants. Lovely.